Attack on Pearl Harbor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Attack on Pearl Harbor Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II Photograph from a Japanese plane of Battleship Row at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS Oklahoma. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard. Date December 7, 1941 Primarily Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Location Territory, U.S. Japanese major tactical victory U.S. declaration of war on the Result Empire of Japan. Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. Belligerents United States Empire of Japan Commanders and leaders Husband Kimmel Chuichi Nagumo Walter Short Isoroku Yamamoto Strength Mobile Unit: 8 battleships 6 aircraft carriers 8 cruisers 2 battleships 30 destroyers 2 heavy cruisers 4 submarines 1 light cruiser 1 USCG Cutter[nb 1] 9 destroyers 49 other ships[1] 8 tankers ~390 aircraft 23 fleet submarines 5 midget submarines 414 aircraft Casualties and losses 4 battleships sunk 3 battleships damaged 1 battleship grounded 4 midget submarines sunk 2 other ships sunk[nb 2] 1 midget submarine 3 cruisers damaged[nb 3] grounded 3 destroyers damaged 29 aircraft destroyed 3 other ships damaged 64 killed 188 aircraft destroyed 1 captured[6] 159[3] aircraft damaged 2,402 killed 1,247 wounded[4][5] Civilian casualties Between 48 - 68 killed[7][8] 35 wounded[4] [show] v t e Hawaiian Islands Campaign [show] v t e Pacific War The attack on Pearl Harbor[nb 4] was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. There were simultaneous Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. From the standpoint of the defenders, the attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time.[13] The base was attacked by 353[14] Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers.[14] All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. All but one were later raised, and six of the eight battleships returned to service and fought in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,[nb 5] and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed[16] and 1,282 wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured. The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day (December 8), the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been strong,[17] disappeared. Clandestine support of Britain (for example the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day. There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Contents 1 Background to conflict o 1.1 Anticipating war o 1.2 Objectives 2 Approach and attack o 2.1 Submarines o 2.2 Japanese declaration of war o 2.3 First wave composition o 2.4 Second wave composition o 2.5 American casualties and damages o 2.6 Japanese losses o 2.7 Possible third wave 3 Photographs 4 Ships lost or damaged o 4.1 Battleships o 4.2 Ex-battleship (target/AA training ship) o 4.3 Cruisers o 4.4 Destroyers o 4.5 Auxiliaries 5 Salvage 6 Aftermath o 6.1 Niihau Incident o 6.2 Strategic implications o 6.3 Present day 7 Media o 7.1 Non-fiction/historical o 7.2 Alternate history 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References o 10.1 Bibliography 11 Further reading 12 External links Background to conflict Pearl Harbor on October 30, 1941, looking southwest Main article: Events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor Anticipating war The attack on Pearl Harbor was intended to neutralize the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and hence protect Japan's advance into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, where it sought access to natural resources such as oil and rubber.[3] War between Japan and the United States had been a possibility of which each nation had been aware (and developed contingency plans for) since the 1920s, though tensions did not begin to grow seriously until Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria. Over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland; the "Southern Operation" was designed to assist these efforts.[18] From December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on the USS Panay and the Nanking Massacre (more than 200,000 killed in indiscriminate massacres) swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion,[19] the United States, the United Kingdom, and France provided loan assistance for war supply contracts to the Republic of China. In 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, which was perceived by Japan as an unfriendly act.[nb 6] The U.S. did not stop oil exports to Japan at that time in part because prevailing sentiment in Washington was that such an action would be an extreme step, given Japanese dependence on U.S. oil,[21][22] and likely to be considered a provocation by Japan. Early in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii from its previous base in San Diego and ordered a military buildup in the Philippines in the hope of discouraging Japanese aggression in the Far East. Because the Japanese high command was (mistakenly) certain any attack on Britain's Southeast Asian colonies would bring the U.S. into the war, a devastating preventive strike appeared to be the only way to avoid U.S. naval interference.[23] An invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. The U.S. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40,000-man elite force. This was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented.[24] By 1941, U.S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet.[25] The U.S. ceased oil exports to Japan in July 1941, following Japanese expansion into French Indochina after the fall of France, in part because of new American restrictions on domestic oil consumption.[26] This in turn caused the Japanese to proceed with plans to take the Dutch East Indies, an oil-rich territory.[nb 7] On 17 August, Roosevelt warned Japan that the U.S. was prepared to take steps against Japan if it attacked "neighboring countries".[28] The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China and losing face or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials in the resource-rich, European-controlled colonies of Southeast Asia. Japan and the U.S. engaged in negotiations during the course of 1941 in an effort to improve relations. During these negotiations, Japan offered to withdraw from most of China and Indochina when peace was made with the Nationalist government, adopt an independent interpretation of the Tripartite Pact, and to not discriminate in trade provided all other countries reciprocated. Washington rejected these proposals. Japan's final proposal, on 20 November, offered to withdraw their forces from southern Indochina and not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia provided that the U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands ceased aiding China and lifted their sanctions against Japan.[29] The American counter-proposal of 26 November (the Hull note) required Japan to evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with Pacific powers. Preliminary planning for an attack on Pearl Harbor to protect the move into the "Southern Resource Area" (the Japanese term for the Dutch East Indies and Southeast Asia generally) had begun very early in 1941 under the auspices of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, then commanding Japan's Combined Fleet.[30] He won assent to formal planning and training for an attack from the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff only after much contention with Naval Headquarters, including a threat to resign his command.[31] Full-scale planning was underway by early spring 1941, primarily by Rear Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka, with assistance from Captain Minoru Genda and Yamamoto's Deputy Chief of Staff, Captain Kameto Kuroshima.[32] The planners studied the 1940 British air attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto intensively.[nb 8][nb 9] Over the next several months, pilots trained, equipment was adapted, and intelligence collected.